Thursday, 12 November 2009

XClaim! 5 & 6

Thanks to Fred Hammer for breaking his own "no shipping to outside of the US" rule, I now have parts 5 & 6 of the XClaim! puzzle.

XClaim! number 5 is the F.U.s 'My America' LP. Otherwise known as "the one with the weird cover". Or "the one with the cover that isn't quite wide enough so that when you put the record in a little bit of the dust sleeve sticks out of the side":

XClaim! number 6 is the Jerry's Kids 'Is This My World?' LP, which is debatably the best of the XClaim! releases:

Mike - check popsike. In the last 12 months, the prices vary a lot. Quite a lot of the XClaim! LPs sold low-ish, like $50-60. SSD & DYS are always gonna be pretty expensive, but the others you should be able to get for reasonable amounts if you are patient.

Neil - in my mind, Bargain Bill's is still there, and it still has all the same records inside as it had in 1993. I also still imagine that the other shop is still there - the one that was near the end of Prices Ave (I think), where Alan Rancid used to source some good stuff like the Very Small World compilation.

I hope to one day visit Hull and buy up all of these gems that have laid undisturbed for years... although I am sure that the reality of the situation is very different to how it is in my mind.

Marcus - BB's is still there, I went in a few months ago and spent quite a while looking through the "gems", Bill Jnr approached me and offered to "do me a deal" as most of it had sat there for years. The other establishment you refer to was "Norm's Place", this moved quite a few years ago and to the best of my knowledge has now closed - no great loss, I think Alan Rancid bought all of the good stuff. His copy of Very Small World is now safely in my possession.

Pretty funny to think that Bargain Bill's Bootleg Basement is still around. I mean, how the hell can a dude have made a living from a record shop in Hull (of all places) for like 20 years? Seems crazy to me. But SURELY there must be something half decent in there? If he had half a brain, he'd be selling on eBay rather than wasting his time with a shop. But chances are he has never heard of eBay and probably still has a Clutch promo 12" somewhere in a rack for £2 that he could probably punt for £100 if he only had a computer.